Russia presses for Iran nuclear diplomacy

"Russia still believes that as long as possible it's better to keep the matter in the International Atomic Energy Agency's hands," Russian Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov said at the Munich Conference on Security Policy.

"We expect unequivocal answers" from Iran, Ivanov said, referring to suspicions in Western capitals that Iran is trying to build a nuclear bomb.

Tehran insists it is setting up a peaceful atomic energy program.

"It is not in our interests to wait for the deterioration of the situation in an already explosive region," Ivanov said.

The UN atomic watchdog voted on Saturday to report Iran to the UN Security Council, which has the power to impose sanctions.

Ivanov warned there was a danger that the IAEA vote would lead the Islamic republic to throw the Agency's inspectors out of the country.

"If they are expelled, that will be a very bad sign," Ivanov said after a defiant Iran announced it was halting snap UN inspections of its nuclear facilities in retaliation for its referral to the Security Council.

"As long as they (the inspectors) are inside Iran, at least we can get some picture of what is happening there in this nuclear program."

Ivanov, who is also Russia's Deputy Prime Minister, said he had doubts about imposing sanctions against Iran, where Russia is building the country's first nuclear reactor.

"I am not sure that sanctions are effective," he said. "I am not sure every country will abide strictly by the sanctions."

The minister also talked up a proposal by Moscow to carry out uranium enrichment on behalf of Iran on Russian territory to allay fears that it could be used to construct a nuclear warhead.

Ivanov said that even if Tehran accepted the compromise it was essential that IAEA inspectors remained in Iran.

"I hope that Iran would accept the Russian proposal, but still the Agency should be there in Iran.

"This proposal is attractive because it will give Iran the full legal right to keep developing its peaceful nuclear energy program. And we will support Iran," Ivanov said.

Iran's foreign ministry said on Sunday that negotiations with Russia on the possible compromise uranium enrichment deal would continue, with talks scheduled in Moscow on February 16.

The Russian proposal would see enrichment -- to produce reactor fuel which can also form the core of a nuclear weapon -- carried out in Russia and then shipped back to Iran.

The plan has received cautious support from the Western powers, but Iran appears reluctant to give up what it sees as a right to enrich uranium itself.

Speaking at the same conference, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier urged Iran to accept the Russian proposal as a way out of the crisis.

"It can be the key to a negotiated solution... Unfortunately the Iranian government has ignored this opportunity so far," Steinmeier said.

"Solving the Iranian nuclear issue is the key task for the immediate future unless we want an arms race in the Middle East."

In his conference speech, Ivanov stressed Russia's ties with the European Union and NATO but expressed reservations about the expansion of the transatlantic alliance.

He also responded to criticism over Russia's record on democracy and its relations with other former Soviet states, such as Georgia and Ukraine, heard at the conference.

"Democracy is not a potato that you can plant anywhere and it will grow," Ivanov said.

The three-day Munich Conference on Security Policy, attended by heads of state, government ministers and senior security officials, ended Sunday.

Source

FAIR USE NOTICE

This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.